PCAOB penalises PW India

PW India violated its most fundamental duty as a public watchdog - say the SEC and the PCAOB of Pricewaterhouse India's role in the Satyam fraud. The two American regulators have imposed their largest ever penalties on PW India, USD 6 million by the SEC and USD 1.5 million by the PCAOB.

The PCAOB or Public Company Accounting Oversight Board - an Audit Super regulator created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 2002 and working under SEC's oversight - has also imposed other sanctions on 5 PW India firms including a bar on accepting any new US based clients for six months. All this while Indian authorities struggle to build a case against the firms or their partners.

So how did PCAOB arrive at these charges, how did they determine the penalty and the limitations and what does this mean for PW India and the audit fraternity in the country? In their first ever interview to Indian media Jay Hanson, a Board Member of the PCAOB and Claudius Modesti, PCAOB's Director of Enforcement and Investigations speak to CNBC TV18's Menaka Doshi.